How to handle haters (3 minute read)

This will be short and sweet. Because I don’t like to focus too much on the haters.

But it’s a necessary evil that we all deal with. And it should be addressed.

I read blogs everyday and it’s very inspiring to see people using the internet to showcase their skills and talents (and help other people).

But once in a while, someone comes along that throws a wrench in the party. They post some comments on other people’s blogs that are aimed to criticize and alienate others.

I actually read a blog post from a very popular blogger the other day which was dedicated to a negative comment that was made on his site. A random person in the public had disagreed with the ideas in his post and publicly wrote negative comments on his blog.

The blogger was understandably upset with the comment and wrote a post in retaliation.

His entire post was centred around this hecklers comment. Out of the string of positive comments on his blog post, he honed in on this negative comment and lashed back at the hater through a fuel raged post which centred out this individual.

I’m glad that this blogger was able to call out this person and let them know that this type of activity won’t be tolerated on his website.

But…

99% of the feedback was positive to his blog post…why focus on one negative hater?

The atention this hater was seeking was reinforced by the response he or she got from this blogger.

Essentially they got what they wanted.

That blogger probably spent a good deal of time writing that post calling out the hater, and in doing so, he ignored the multiple other postive comments he received from the people that actually read and enjoyed his material.

The hater successfully pulled him away from what he does best…which is, writing high quality and useful content.

His loyal fans and supporters were ignored because of one hater. It’s unfortunate that this hater got the time of day and the attention.

That hater probably didn’t even spend the time to go back and read his rebuttal to that post.

Do haters distract you and pull you away from what you do best?

Remember, like I’ve said before, what you focus on gets bigger. It’s like when you were a teenager and that pimple in the middle of your forehead seemed to get larger and larger the longer and more intensely you focused on it. Until you looked in the mirror at the end of the day and it looked like a football in the middle of your forehead.

Pursue positivity, embrace your supporters, be vulnerable, and never ever give haters the time of day.

P.S. In case you didn’t notice. I spelled attention wrong earlier in this post. I did that on purpose.

How many people caught it?

If you did, maybe you focus too much on the mistakes and wrongdoings of others…you focus on the wrong, and miss the right.

There are 262 words before the word attention in this post. And this is the one word that you focused on.

I’m not trying to call you out (hater!)…. just kidding. It’s hard not to point out a fault when we see it. But in focusing on the mistake I made, you may have missed the essence of the message, because you were too preoccupied with what was wrong in the message.